The Fine
by Spider-Midget
Summary: Bumblebee is very good at getting himself into trouble. Short piece.


"This is unbelievable!" Bumblebee cried, frantically waving around a crumpled slip of paper.

Optimus gave a long suffering sigh and gently cradled his head. He was standing behind the sofa, where Sari and Bulkhead were sitting. She had been telling them stories from her childhood, and doing her best to explain to them certain customs on Earth they were having trouble grasping. "What is it this time, Bumblebee? Another parking ticket?"

"Worse!" he exclaimed.

Bulkhead frowned. "What could be worse than a parking ticket? Oh, I know! _Two_ parking tickets!"

Prowl, previously listening to Sari and leaning against the wall, walked over and plucked the paper from Bumblebee's grasp; he carefully read it. Several moments later, he stiffly handed it to Optimus. "You deserve it," he said.

Bumblebee looked as though he'd been struck ."Uh, _hello?_ I'm a slagging Autobot for Pit's sake, not some regular Joe Schmoe! They can't do this to me!"

"Do what?" Sari practically yelled. It looked like an ordinary sheet of paper to her. "What's going on?"

"He's being fined_,_" Optimus explained incredulously. He frowned and glanced at Ratchet. "I can't belie—wow. Here, someone take this."

Ratchet quickly snatched the paper out of his hands and earnestly looked it over. "_Ha!_ For downloading movies off the Internet! I told you that junk would catch up to ya."

"Bumblebee!" Optimus groaned. "Where are we going to get the money for this?"

Sari made a confused face. "How'd they even know it was him?" she asked, though no one seemed to hear her.

"I was_ borrowing_ them," Bumblebee explained. "I shouldn't have to pay!" Looking around at his friends faces and realizing no one (openly) agreed with him, he was shocked. "You guys, come on. Everyone does it."

"You were amassing them," Prowl corrected pointedly. "You had no intention of returning them."

Bumblebee's servos were fists now. "_To the Internet?_" he yelled.

"Are you sure everyone does it?" Bulkhead asked hesitantly.

Bumblebee stamped his foot and stubbornly folded his arms. "Everybody does it!"

"Well, I dunno about that. _I_ don't."

"Every-"

"Look, I don't care how many people do it!" Optimus cut in, moving to stand between the two friends. His voice was sharp with irritation as he shoved the paper at Bumblebee, saying, "you need to take care of this, and by 'take care of,' I don't mean talk Sari's father into paying for you. I don't care what it takes, but you're going to pay this off—yourself."

"But bossbot-"

"No buts! You need to learn to take responsibility for your actions." he paused, his expression stern and somewhat benign. "I'm sorry. Just pay the fine, all right, and we can all forget about this."

Bumblebee looked hopeless as his friends, some shaking their heads, others smirking and tittering to themselves, wandered off to persue other interests. He sighed deeply and collapsed next to Sari on the sofa.

"Aw." Sari patted his leg sympathetically. "I guess you're gonna have to start paying to see movies just like everyone else. Bummer. So, how ya gonna cough up the cash for this, anyway? Get a job?"

"A job? Pfft! Yeah, right. The city should pay me for keeping the Decepticreeps off their front lawns." He frowned. "I'll figure something out, just you wait and see."

"Uhh, Prime sounded pretty serious, 'Bee. I don't think you should mess around on this one."

"Yeah, well, know what else is serious?" he leapt up from the sofa and transformed, his door popping open, an invitation for her to climb in. "A $500 fine. Come on, I need a nice long drive and my organic sidekick to plot a clever way to weasel out of this."

"Or you could just pay the fine like Optimus said."

"What's the fun in that? Besides, I think I have the perfect plan. Are you coming?"

Sari sighed and climbed in. "There's no point in trying to talk to you, is there?"

"Nope."

She watched with mild interest as his seat belt spring up and wrapped itself around her. "You've already made your mind up, haven't you?"

"Yep. Let's go."


End file.
